Chris Holmes

Profile

Chris headed up Shift’s Healthy Food programme between 2016-2018, developing products and services that catalyse changes in existing food categories that lead to better diets. The team are currently focused on fast food with programmes underway in Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Birmingham. This work builds on the success of ‘Box Chicken’, Shift’s development of a healthier fried chicken outlet.

Following a 15-year commercial career in the food industry, most latterly as Marketing Director for Kraft Foods (now Mondelez), Chris has spent the last 12-years applying behavioural science to a variety of social issues with a focus on public health. His particular interest is in childhood obesity and how to harness the competitive dynamics of consumer markets to deliver pro-social outcomes.

When not being ‘Shifty’, Chris can be found in the outdoors and, with his partner, is currently developing a love of sea kayaking with a view to one day touring the West Isles Whisky Distilleries by kayak.

Research

Shift has developed the UK’s most detailed understanding of takeaway food, families’ relationship with it, the role hot, prepared food plays in their food behaviours, the economics of outlets and the motivations of their owners. Possible avenues for positive change have been tested and the way forward is clear.

Insights video summarising our research into how the environment influences families’ food behaviours in Lambeth and Southwark. Videography by Jan Stockel, produced by Maia Muir Wood, and Chloe Cook. Commissioned by Guys and St Thomas’ Charity.

Video exploring what behavioural science, lived experience and insights from leading practitioners tell us about one of the biggest health challenges of our time, childhood obesity. Produced by Guys and St Thomas’s Charity, with content and production contributions from Chloe Cook and Maia Muir Wood.

Report exploring what behavioural science, lived experience and insights from leading practitioners tell us about one of the biggest health challenges of our time, childhood obesity. Produced by Guys and St Thomas’s Charity, with content and production from Chloe Cook and Maia Muir Wood.

Evaluation report of experimental feasibility study aiming to test a variety of realistic adaptations to fast food business and evaluate these adaptations to understand their relative effectiveness in relation to sales, costs, customer satisfaction and health. Funded by Public Health, Tower Hamlets. By Chloe Cook and Chris Holmes